Rakuten Kobo

A Natural History of Empty Lots

Field Notes from Urban Edgelands, Back Alleys, and Other Wild Places

by Christopher Brown ...

An "instant classic", this genre-bending blend of naturalism, memoir, and social manifesto is a fascinating study for rewilding the city, the self, and society (Jeff VanderMeer, New York Times bestselling author).During the real estate crash of the late 2000s, Christopher Brown purchased an empty lot in an industrial section of Austin, Texas. The property—abandoned and full of litter and debris ... Read more

$14.99 USD

An "instant classic", this genre-bending blend of naturalism, memoir, and social manifesto is a fascinating study for rewilding the city, the self, and society (Jeff VanderMeer, New York Times bestselling author).During the real estate crash of the late 2000s, Christopher Brown purchased an empty lot in an industrial section of Austin, Texas. The property—abandoned and full of litter and debris
... Read more
City Planning

A Very Short Introduction

by Carl Abbott ...

Series series Very Short Introductions
City planning is a practice and a profession. It is also a set of goals and--sometimes utopian--aspirations. Formal thought about the shaping of cities as physical spaces and social environments calls on the same range of disciplines and approaches that we use for understanding cities themselves, from art and literature through the social and natural sciences. Surrounding the core profession of ... Read more

$8.99 USD

City planning is a practice and a profession. It is also a set of goals and--sometimes utopian--aspirations. Formal thought about the shaping of cities as physical spaces and social environments calls on the same range of disciplines and approaches that we use for understanding cities themselves, from art and literature through the social and natural sciences. Surrounding the core profession of
... Read more
An Even Better Way to Zone

Achieving More Affordable, Equitable, and Sustainable Communities

by Donald L. Elliott ...

Zoning is the tool that everyone loves to hate. It may also be the most important and least understood process affecting how US communities shape the lives of their residents. While almost every community comprehensive plan calls for more affordable, equitable, and sustainable development, zoning is often blamed for preventing that from happening. As US communities face an unprecedented housing ... Read more

$25.19 USD

Zoning is the tool that everyone loves to hate. It may also be the most important and least understood process affecting how US communities shape the lives of their residents. While almost every community comprehensive plan calls for more affordable, equitable, and sustainable development, zoning is often blamed for preventing that from happening. As US communities face an unprecedented housing
... Read more
Better Buses, Better Cities

How to Plan, Run, and Win the Fight for Effective Transit

by Steven Higashide ...

"Better Buses, Better Cities is likely the best book ever written on improving bus service in the United States." — Randy Shaw, Beyond Chron"The ultimate roadmap for how to make the bus great again in your city." — Spacing"The definitive volume on how to make bus frequent, fast, reliable, welcoming, and respected..." — StreetsblogImagine a bus system that is fast, frequent, and reliable—what would ... Read more

$19.49 USD

"Better Buses, Better Cities is likely the best book ever written on improving bus service in the United States." — Randy Shaw, Beyond Chron"The ultimate roadmap for how to make the bus great again in your city." — Spacing"The definitive volume on how to make bus frequent, fast, reliable, welcoming, and respected..." — StreetsblogImagine a bus system that is fast, frequent, and reliable—what would
... Read more
Creating Cohousing

Building Sustainable Communities

by Kathryn McCamant, Charles Durrett ...

The cohousing "bible" by the US originators of the concept.A man's home is his castle. But demographic and economic changes haveturned our castles into islands. How can we regain the elements of the traditional village – family, cooperation, community and a sense of belonging – within the context of 21st century life?Creating Cohousing: Building Sustainable Communities is an in-depth exploration ... Read more

$25.19 USD

The cohousing "bible" by the US originators of the concept.A man's home is his castle. But demographic and economic changes haveturned our castles into islands. How can we regain the elements of the traditional village – family, cooperation, community and a sense of belonging – within the context of 21st century life?Creating Cohousing: Building Sustainable Communities is an in-depth exploration
... Read more
A Pattern Language

Towns, Buildings, Construction

by Christopher Alexander ...

Series series Center for Environmental Structure Series
You can use this book to design a house for yourself with your family; you can use it to work with your neighbors to improve your town and neighborhood; you can use it to design an office, or a workshop, or a public building. And you can use it to guide you in the actual process of construction. After a ten-year silence, Christopher Alexander and his colleagues at the Center for Environmental ... Read more

$43.19 USD

You can use this book to design a house for yourself with your family; you can use it to work with your neighbors to improve your town and neighborhood; you can use it to design an office, or a workshop, or a public building. And you can use it to guide you in the actual process of construction. After a ten-year silence, Christopher Alexander and his colleagues at the Center for Environmental
... Read more
Palaces for the People

How Social Infrastructure Can Help Fight Inequality, Polarization, and the Decline of Civic Life

by Eric Klinenberg ...

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • “A comprehensive, entertaining, and compelling argument for how rebuilding social infrastructure can help heal divisions in our society and move us forward.”—Jon StewartNAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY NPR • “Engaging.”—Mayor Pete Buttigieg, The New York Times Book Review (Editors’ Choice)We are living in a time of deep divisions. Americans are sorting themselves ... Read more

$10.99 USD

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • “A comprehensive, entertaining, and compelling argument for how rebuilding social infrastructure can help heal divisions in our society and move us forward.”—Jon StewartNAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY NPR • “Engaging.”—Mayor Pete Buttigieg, The New York Times Book Review (Editors’ Choice)We are living in a time of deep divisions. Americans are sorting themselves
... Read more
Recast Your City

How to Save Your Downtown with Small-Scale Manufacturing

by Ilana Preuss ...

Too many U.S. cities and towns have been focused on a model of economic development that relies on recruiting one big company (such as Amazon), a single industry (usually in technology), or pursuing other narrow or short-term fixes that are inequitable and unsustainable. Some cities and towns were changing, even before the historic retail collapse brought on by COVID-19. They started to shift to a ... Read more

$21.59 USD

Too many U.S. cities and towns have been focused on a model of economic development that relies on recruiting one big company (such as Amazon), a single industry (usually in technology), or pursuing other narrow or short-term fixes that are inequitable and unsustainable. Some cities and towns were changing, even before the historic retail collapse brought on by COVID-19. They started to shift to a
... Read more
Parks and Recreation System Planning

A New Approach for Creating Sustainable, Resilient Communities

by David Barth ...

Parks and recreation systems have evolved in remarkable ways over the past two decades. No longer just playgrounds and ballfields, parks and open spaces have become recognized as essential green infrastructure with the potential to contribute to community resiliency and sustainability. To capitalize on this potential, the parks and recreation system planning process must evolve as well. In Parks ... Read more

$29.59 USD

Parks and recreation systems have evolved in remarkable ways over the past two decades. No longer just playgrounds and ballfields, parks and open spaces have become recognized as essential green infrastructure with the potential to contribute to community resiliency and sustainability. To capitalize on this potential, the parks and recreation system planning process must evolve as well. In Parks
... Read more
Design Thinking

A Guide to Creative Problem Solving for Everyone

by Andrew Pressman ...

Design thinking is a powerful process that facilitates understanding and framing of problems, enables creative solutions, and may provide fresh perspectives on our physical and social landscapes. Not just for architects or product developers, design thinking can be applied across many disciplines to solve real-world problems and reconcile dilemmas. It is a tool that may trigger inspiration and the ... Read more

$48.99 USD

Design thinking is a powerful process that facilitates understanding and framing of problems, enables creative solutions, and may provide fresh perspectives on our physical and social landscapes. Not just for architects or product developers, design thinking can be applied across many disciplines to solve real-world problems and reconcile dilemmas. It is a tool that may trigger inspiration and the
... Read more
Arbitrary Lines

How Zoning Broke the American City and How to Fix It

by M. Nolan Gray ...

What if scrapping one flawed policy could bring US cities closer to addressing debilitating housing shortages, stunted growth and innovation, persistent racial and economic segregation, and car-dependent development?It’s time for America to move beyond zoning, argues city planner M. Nolan Gray in Arbitrary Lines: How Zoning Broke the American City and How to Fix It. With lively explanations and ... Read more

$21.59 USD

What if scrapping one flawed policy could bring US cities closer to addressing debilitating housing shortages, stunted growth and innovation, persistent racial and economic segregation, and car-dependent development?It’s time for America to move beyond zoning, argues city planner M. Nolan Gray in Arbitrary Lines: How Zoning Broke the American City and How to Fix It. With lively explanations and
... Read more
Urban Theory

New critical perspectives

Edited by Mark Jayne, Kevin Ward ...

Urban Theory: New Critical Perspectives provides an introduction to innovative critical contributions to the field of urban studies. Chapters offer easily accessible and digestible reviews, and as a reference text Urban Theory is a comprehensive and integrated primer which covers topics necessary for a full understanding of recent theoretical engagements with cities.The introduction outlines the ... Read more

$75.99 USD

Urban Theory: New Critical Perspectives provides an introduction to innovative critical contributions to the field of urban studies. Chapters offer easily accessible and digestible reviews, and as a reference text Urban Theory is a comprehensive and integrated primer which covers topics necessary for a full understanding of recent theoretical engagements with cities.The introduction outlines the
... Read more
Remaking the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge

A Case of Shadowboxing with Nature

by Karen Trapenberg Frick ...

Series series Planning, History and Environment Series
Winner of TransportiCA’s September Book Club Award 2018On 17 October 1989 one the largest earthquakes to occur in California since the San Francisco earthquake of April 1906 struck Northern California. Damage was extensive, none more so than the partial collapse of the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge’s eastern span, a vital link used by hundreds of thousands of Californians every day.The bridge ... Read more

$65.99 USD

Winner of TransportiCA’s September Book Club Award 2018On 17 October 1989 one the largest earthquakes to occur in California since the San Francisco earthquake of April 1906 struck Northern California. Damage was extensive, none more so than the partial collapse of the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge’s eastern span, a vital link used by hundreds of thousands of Californians every day.The bridge
... Read more
A History of Housing in New York City

by Richard Plunz ...

Series series Columbia History of Urban Life
Since its emergence in the mid-nineteenth century as the nation's "metropolis," New York has faced the most challenging housing problems of any American city, but it has also led the nation in innovation and reform. The horrors of the tenement were perfected in New York at the same time that the very rich were building palaces along Fifth Avenue; public housing for the poor originated in New York, ... Read more

$43.19 USD

Since its emergence in the mid-nineteenth century as the nation's "metropolis," New York has faced the most challenging housing problems of any American city, but it has also led the nation in innovation and reform. The horrors of the tenement were perfected in New York at the same time that the very rich were building palaces along Fifth Avenue; public housing for the poor originated in New York,
... Read more
What Goes Up

The Right and Wrongs to the City

by Michael Sorkin ...

A radical architect examines the changing fortunes of the contemporary cityMichael Sorkin is one of the most forthright and engaging architectural writers in the world. In What Goes Up he takes to task the public officials, developers, “civic” organizations, and other heroes of big money, who have made of Sorkin’s beloved New York a city of glittering towers and increasing inequality. He unpacks ... Read more

$14.99 USD

A radical architect examines the changing fortunes of the contemporary cityMichael Sorkin is one of the most forthright and engaging architectural writers in the world. In What Goes Up he takes to task the public officials, developers, “civic” organizations, and other heroes of big money, who have made of Sorkin’s beloved New York a city of glittering towers and increasing inequality. He unpacks
... Read more
The Intimate City

Walking New York

by Michael Kimmelman ...

**“‘The Intimate City’ is a joyful miscellany of people seeing things in the urban landscape, the streets alive with remembrances and ideas even when those streets are relatively empty of people.”—Robert Sullivan, New York Times Book ReviewFrom the New York Times architecture critic, his celebrated walking tours of New York City, now expanded, covering four of the five boroughs and some 540 ... Read more

Was $7.99 USD Now $6.99 USD

**“‘The Intimate City’ is a joyful miscellany of people seeing things in the urban landscape, the streets alive with remembrances and ideas even when those streets are relatively empty of people.”—Robert Sullivan, New York Times Book ReviewFrom the New York Times architecture critic, his celebrated walking tours of New York City, now expanded, covering four of the five boroughs and some 540
... Read more
Sidewalk Nation

The Life and Law of America's Most Overlooked Resource

by Michael Pollack ...

An illuminating ramble along the American sidewalk: routinely unnoticed, yet central to daily life, neighborhood vitality, and significant legal controversies.Public infrastructure is as essential to our communities as it is easily overlooked. A case in point is the humble sidewalk: constantly taken for granted, yet linked to nearly every pressing issue of local governance in urban, suburban, and ... Read more

$28.69 USD

An illuminating ramble along the American sidewalk: routinely unnoticed, yet central to daily life, neighborhood vitality, and significant legal controversies.Public infrastructure is as essential to our communities as it is easily overlooked. A case in point is the humble sidewalk: constantly taken for granted, yet linked to nearly every pressing issue of local governance in urban, suburban, and
... Read more
Too High and Too Steep

Reshaping Seattle’s Topography

by David B. Williams ...

Residents and visitors in today�s Seattle would barely recognize the landscape that its founding settlers first encountered. As the city grew, its leaders and inhabitants dramatically altered its topography to accommodate their changing visions. In Too High and Too Steep, David B. Williams uses his deep knowledge of Seattle, scientific background, and extensive research and interviews to ... Read more

$18.09 USD

Residents and visitors in today�s Seattle would barely recognize the landscape that its founding settlers first encountered. As the city grew, its leaders and inhabitants dramatically altered its topography to accommodate their changing visions. In Too High and Too Steep, David B. Williams uses his deep knowledge of Seattle, scientific background, and extensive research and interviews to
... Read more
Form and Flow

The Spatial Politics of Urban Resilience and Climate Justice

by Kian Goh ...

Series series Urban and Industrial Environments
An examination of urban climate change response strategies and the resistance to them by grassroots activists and social movements.Cities around the world are formulating plans to respond to climate change and adapt to its impact. Often, marginalized urban residents resist these plans, offering “counterplans” to protest unjust and exclusionary actions. In this book, Kian Goh examines climate ... Read more

$25.99 USD

An examination of urban climate change response strategies and the resistance to them by grassroots activists and social movements.Cities around the world are formulating plans to respond to climate change and adapt to its impact. Often, marginalized urban residents resist these plans, offering “counterplans” to protest unjust and exclusionary actions. In this book, Kian Goh examines climate
... Read more
Human Transit

How Clearer Thinking about Public Transit Can Enrich Our Communities and Our Lives

by Jarrett Walker ...

Public transit is a powerful tool for addressing a huge range of urban problems, including traffic congestion and economic development as well as climate change. But while many people support transit in the abstract, it's often hard to channel that support into good transit investments. Part of the problem is that transit debates attract many kinds of experts, who often talk past each other. ... Read more

$29.59 USD

Public transit is a powerful tool for addressing a huge range of urban problems, including traffic congestion and economic development as well as climate change. But while many people support transit in the abstract, it's often hard to channel that support into good transit investments. Part of the problem is that transit debates attract many kinds of experts, who often talk past each other.
... Read more
Concrete Reveries

Consciousness and the City

by Mark Kingwell ...

A profound philosophical exploration of urban architecture and its impact on human experience, ideal for those intrigued by the complexity of metropolitan life.In Concrete Reveries, acclaimed philosopher and cultural critic Mark Kingwell offers a thoughtful answer to Socrates’ injunction about the life worth living, using the urban experience to illustrate the dynamic between concreteness and ... Read more

$6.99 USD

A profound philosophical exploration of urban architecture and its impact on human experience, ideal for those intrigued by the complexity of metropolitan life.In Concrete Reveries, acclaimed philosopher and cultural critic Mark Kingwell offers a thoughtful answer to Socrates’ injunction about the life worth living, using the urban experience to illustrate the dynamic between concreteness and
... Read more
Smart Cities

Una visión para el ciudadano

by Marieta del Rivero ...

Series series Acción Empresarial
Smart Cities es un libro que ayuda a conocer y entender todos los progresos tecnológicos que nos ofrecen las ciudades donde vivimos. Esta revolución tecnológica convierte a nuestras ciudades en ciudades inteligentes gracias a las múltiples conexiones entre personas, procesos, datos y objetos que va a transformarlo todo. Debemos entender qué está ocurriendo, cómo podemos ser parte activa y ... Read more

$10.99 USD

Smart Cities es un libro que ayuda a conocer y entender todos los progresos tecnológicos que nos ofrecen las ciudades donde vivimos. Esta revolución tecnológica convierte a nuestras ciudades en ciudades inteligentes gracias a las múltiples conexiones entre personas, procesos, datos y objetos que va a transformarlo todo. Debemos entender qué está ocurriendo, cómo podemos ser parte activa y
... Read more
Local and Regional Development

by Andy Pike ...

Actors and institutions in localities and regions across the world are seeking prosperity and well-being amidst tumultuous and disruptive shifts and transitions generated by: an increasingly globalised, knowledge-intensive capitalism; global financial instability, volatility and crisis; concerns about economic, social and ecological sustainability, climate change and resource shortages; new multi ... Read more

$87.99 USD

Actors and institutions in localities and regions across the world are seeking prosperity and well-being amidst tumultuous and disruptive shifts and transitions generated by: an increasingly globalised, knowledge-intensive capitalism; global financial instability, volatility and crisis; concerns about economic, social and ecological sustainability, climate change and resource shortages; new multi
... Read more
If Venice Dies

by Salvatore Settis ...

Translated by André Naffis-Sahely ...

"This powerful book of cultural criticism" by the renowned art historian "shines a harsh light on" a historic city's destruction in the name of profit ( The Washington Post).What is Venice worth? To whom do its irreplaceable treasures belong? This eloquent book by art historian Salvatore Settis urgently poses these questions, igniting a new debate about urban stewardship and cultural patrimony at ... Read more

$12.99 USD or Free with Kobo Plus

"This powerful book of cultural criticism" by the renowned art historian "shines a harsh light on" a historic city's destruction in the name of profit ( The Washington Post).What is Venice worth? To whom do its irreplaceable treasures belong? This eloquent book by art historian Salvatore Settis urgently poses these questions, igniting a new debate about urban stewardship and cultural patrimony at
... Read more

eReaders

Apps

Accessories

Shopping Cart

You're getting the VIP treatment!

Your Shopping Cart is empty

Available:

1 audiobook monthly

+ FREE 30-day trial

Available:

1 audiobook monthly

+ FREE 30-day trial

Recommended For You

Planning eBooks

Show: